Written Answers Monday 7 December 2009

Scottish Executive

Education

Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers an assessment of pupils’ progress and ability prior to the end of P4 unnecessary.

Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what benchmarks teachers will be encouraged to use to give parents feedback on their children’s progress and performance prior to the end of P4.

Michael Russell: Teachers will apply the standards and expectations set out in the curriculum guidance and the strategic vision for assessment which my predecessor published on 24 September 2009 at all stages, including prior to the end of P4.

  http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence/assessmentandachievement/index.asp.

  More detailed guidance for practitioners on the assessment framework will be published in due course.

Education

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is to be no formal mechanism for measuring progress in literacy or numeracy until the tenth year of a child’s education under plans for implementing the Curriculum for Excellence, as stated by the President of School Leaders Scotland, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Michael Russell: Such an understanding of future assessment is incorrect. Through Curriculum for Excellence, for the first time since devolution, all teachers will have responsibility for improving the literacy and numeracy of all children. Literacy and numeracy will be developed to agreed national standards at all stages from early to senior. For the first time, there will be new qualifications in literacy and numeracy from S3 onwards to accredit the skills developed through Curriculum for Excellence.

  Each child and young person will be formally assessed throughout all stages, from early years to senior and secondary education. Learning will be assessed against the standards and expectations set out in the curriculum guidance and in line with the strategic vision for assessment, published on 23 September this year. Children and young people will be assessed through a wide range of tasks and activities, including dialogue and interactions with peers, as well as through written, oral and practical activities and tasks, including tests and examinations, including from S3 onwards the literacy and numeracy qualifications. The framework for assessment, and the quality assurance and moderation model, to be published in due course, will provide more detailed guidance on assessment in Curriculum for Excellence.

Education

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is to be no standardised means of communicating progress in literacy and numeracy to secondary schools at the transition stage under plans for implementing the Curriculum for Excellence, as stated by the President of School Leaders Scotland, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

Michael Russell: Such an understanding of future assessment is incorrect. The standards and expectations within the curriculum guidance provide a common basis of understanding across sectors. One of the key aims of Curriculum for Excellence is to ensure well-planned and effective transition between all stages of the 3-18 curriculum.

  At particular points – especially points of transition – teachers will work with children and young people to provide clear information about each child’s or young person’s progress and achievements, including in literacy and numeracy. The new national system of quality assurance and moderation will ensure that there is confidence in assessment judgements and that the information is valid and reliable.

Education

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to assess progress or record achievement in literacy and numeracy in primary schools.

Michael Russell: I refer the member to question S3W-29158, answered on 7 December 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

  Parents will also get regular information at all stages about their children’s progress in achieving Curriculum for Excellence levels in key areas of learning, such as literacy and numeracy. In addition to individual reports on the progress of their child, parents will receive information on how well learners and particular groups of learners are achieving in relation to expected levels at particular stages, as well as how the school is applying national standards and expectations.

Education

Des McNulty (Clydebank and Milngavie) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it intends to assess progress or record achievement in literacy and numeracy in (a) S1, (b) S2 and (c) S3.

Michael Russell: I refer the member to answers to questions S3W-29158 and S3W-29166 on 7 December 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

  In addition, the new qualifications in literacy and numeracy will accredit the skills developed through Curriculum for Excellence from S3 onwards.

Education

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-28950 by Fiona Hyslop on 23 November 2009, whether the representatives from the financial sector referred to include representatives from the Royal Bank of Scotland or Lloyds Banking Group.

Michael Russell: The Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group will not be represented on the new review group.

Employment

Cathy Jamieson (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ask local authorities to collect and analyse local labour market intelligence on job losses in small and micro-businesses.

Keith Brown: On 23 June, the Scottish Government established the Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) which brought together all agencies with an interest in PACE to oversee a continuous improvement programme to enhance the operation of PACE.

  As part of this improvement programme, on 1 December a new data capture system will be introduced across the 21 local PACE teams. This will combine information on redundancies of 20 or more from the HR1 system with information on smaller scale redundancies based on local intelligence collected by local PACE teams. This new system will provide a more comprehensive range of information on PACE interventions across Scotland.

Employment

Cathie Craigie (Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) skillseeker and (b) modern apprenticeship places were allocated to (i) North Lanarkshire and (ii) Glasgow in the (A) under-20 and (B) over-20 age group categories in each of the last three years.

Michael Russell: The following table shows the breakdown of skillseekers and modern apprenticeships new starts in Glasgow City Council and North Lanarkshire local authority areas by age. It is important to note that the table shows overall starts for each programme across the areas as apposed to original contract allocations as this is what is recorded by the Skills Development Scotland systems.

  

 Skillseekers (SS) 16-19
2006-07 
New Starts
2007-08 
New Starts
2008-09 
New Starts


 North Lanarkshire
 522
 509
 445


 Glasgow City Council
 568
 553
 571


 Modern Apprenticeships (MA) 16-19
 
 
 


 North Lanarkshire
 833
 738
 729


 Glasgow City Council
 1,085
 1,047
 1,062


 Modern Apprenticeships (MA) 20+
 
 
 


 North Lanarkshire
 633
 653
 121


 Glasgow City Council
 1,028
 844
 173

Fuel Poverty

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many working days it expects the contractor responsible for Stage Three of the Energy Assistance Package to take to hand over applications fulfilling the criteria for Stage Four for progression by the contractor responsible for Stage Four.

Alex Neil: As announced by the Minister for Housing and Communities on 4 November, where a household is identified as being potentially eligible for Stage Four, they will be referred for an RdSAP survey. This will allow work on Stages Three and Four to be progressed in parallel.

Health

Dave Thompson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions have taken place with individual NHS boards on the implementation of the Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan.

Shona Robison: Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan makes clear that NHS boards are expected to take forward the individual actions on them, within a specified timeframe, through their cardiac and stroke managed clinical networks (MCNs). The National Advisory Committees on Heart Disease and Stroke are responsible for monitoring progress on behalf of the Scottish Government Health Directorates.

  Other activities which have a bearing on NHS boards’ implementation of the action plan are the Scottish Patient Safety Programme work on heart failure and myocardial infarction, the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland CHD Improvement Plan and the Scottish Stroke Care Audit.

Health

Dave Thompson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the additional resource implications are for NHS boards of the recommendations in the Better Heart Disease and Care Action Plan.

Shona Robison: The actions in the Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan are framed in a way that should make them cost neutral or susceptible to implementation in the longer term. Many of them relate to ensuring that existing good practice, standards and guidelines are implemented consistently across Scotland.

  The most significant resource implications associated with cardiovascular disease were set out in February 2007, in the five-year clinical and resource impact assessment published by the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, to accompany the suite of five clinical guidelines on coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease published by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network.

Health

Nicol Stephen (Aberdeen South) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether capacity to provide adult respiratory extracorporeal membrane oxygenation treatment at the Leicester centre has now been doubled and, if so, when was this achieved.

Nicola Sturgeon: Prior to the H1N1 pandemic, Glenfield Hospital had the capacity to provide respiratory ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) to a maximum of five patients, both adult and paediatric. In line with recommendations made by the UK Critical Care Capacity (UKCCG) sub-group on H1N1 in September 2009, capacity for adult respiratory ECMO at Leicester was increased to eight beds.

  This was achieved by re-directing paediatric ECMO patients to centres commissioned to participate in the UK’s paediatric ECMO network; by reducing cardiac elective capacity; by maximising the rotas of existing trained staff and by ensuring all post-ECMO patients were transferred out to referring units as soon as possible. Additional accredited surge capacity has also been commissioned temporarily at the Royal Brompton and Papworth Hospitals. There are now 12 beds in the UK for adult respiratory ECMO, which represents more than a doubling in capacity.

  As the UK’s designated centre for adult respiratory ECMO, Leicester is and remains the gateway and first option for access to this treatment. The UK CCG, which reconvened to assess the current provision of ECMO at this stage of the pandemic, recommended on 11 November that Glenfield will maintain its capacity at the current level of eight active ECMO beds in order that this central role can be maintained.

Housing

Cathy Jamieson (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide funding to enable further development of housing co-operatives.

Alex Neil: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-28806 on 18 November. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

Housing

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are registered with a local authority or housing association as looking for a home, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

Alex Neil: Information on the number of people registered with a local authority or housing association as looking for a home is not held centrally.

  The Scottish Government does however collect information on the number of applications there are on local authorities’ housing registers. This information is published at local authority (LA) level on the Housing Statistics for Scotland website:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/StockManagement.

  As the information is collected at aggregate LA level from the individual local authorities it is not possible to break it down by parliamentary constituency area.

  These figures show that at March 2009, there were almost 200,000 applications recorded for Scottish local authority owned housing. It is important to note that this will include a significant and unquantified level of double counting as people looking for a home can record an application with a number of local authorities and will appear on multiple lists.

  At March 2009, there were also around 244,000 applicants registered on registered social landlord (RSL) waiting lists. This data is collected by the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) and is only available broken down by RSL.

  Note that neither the RSL nor LA lists show the number of people waiting for social rented accommodation, but the number of applications. There is potentially a large, unquantified level of duplication within and between the lists. It is also possible that some people on RSL and LA waiting lists have already secured social rented accommodation but have not informed the other RSL’s and LA’s, so continue to be counted on the other lists for a period of time.

Justice

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will respond to the findings of the Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976 review led by Lord Cullen of Whitekirk.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will set out a timescale for the implementation of the recommendations of the Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths Inquiry (Scotland) Act 1976 review led by Lord Cullen of Whitekirk.

Kenny MacAskill: The government is giving careful consideration to the recommendations made by Lord Cullen in his report on the Review of the Fatal Accident Inquiry Legislation .

  Many of Lord Cullen’s recommendations have practical implications for the Scottish Court Service, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and the government will liaise closely with these bodies in identifying how the recommendations should be implemented.

Maternity Services

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of first-time mothers had 10 antenatal checks, as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09.

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of pregnant women who had previous uncomplicated pregnancies had seven antenatal checks, as recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09

Shona Robison: At present this information is not collected or held centrally.

  However, through our Keeping Childbirth Natural and Dynamic (KCND) programme, we are working in partnership with all NHS boards to offer women early, seamless access to maternity services through attending a midwife as their first professional contact in pregnancy. We have also recently introduced pathways for maternity care, which facilitate robust risk assessment in early pregnancy and timely intervention for women and families. These pathways outline the usual schedule of antenatal visits for healthy women who are first-time and previous mothers across NHS Scotland. Also, through evaluation of KCND we will be collecting data on the number of antenatal visits for all women within every NHS board.

Maternity Services

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that every woman is given a birthing place choice, including a minimum of one midwife-led care option, as recommended by the National Childbirth Trust.

Shona Robison: Our national maternity policy, A Framework for Maternity Services in Scotland,  outlines our commitment to offering women choice in relation to place of birth. Principles 10 and 11 of this framework make specific reference to our expectations that services offer one-to-one care in established labour and support women’s right to choice around birth options. We expect all NHS boards to plan maternity services to meet the needs of their local population and ensure that care is in line with evidence around best practice guidance and our national pathways. There are currently 22 community maternity units and 18 consultant-led units across NHS Scotland. In addition, many of our consultant-led units have alongside midwife-led birthing facilities and all NHS boards offer women the option of home birth.

  Our Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning Programme collected data across Scotland between June 2007 and August 2008, using "Birthrate Plus" and "Professional Judgement". Although limitations were noted in the tools, this data collection demonstrated a good relationship between current budget whole-time equivalents of midwives and the output of the tools. This data is being used by NHS boards to inform local workforce planning and one of our key aims is to ensure that provision of one-to-one care in established labour.

Maternity Services

Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many babies were born at the Inverclyde Royal Hospital Community Maternity Unit in each of the last three years.

Shona Robison: The number of babies born in the Inverclyde Royal Hospital is set out in the following table:

  

 2006
 2007
 2008


 73
 102
 96



  As in other statistics published by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), each birth is counted on the basis of the year in which it was registered, which may not be the same as the year in which it occurred.

  Provisional figures for 2009 will not be available until March 2010

Maternity Services

Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many babies were born between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm at the Inverclyde Royal Hospital Community Maternity Unit in each of the last three years.

Shona Robison: The number of babies born between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm in the Inverclyde Royal Hospital is set out in the following table:

  

 2006
 2007
 2008


 27
 32
 33



  As in other statistics published by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), each birth is counted on the basis of the year in which it was registered, which may not be the same as the year in which it occurred.

  Provisional figures for 2009 will not be available until March 2010.

Schools

Elaine Murray (Dumfries) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that making a ministerial visit to the opening of a new PPP school is consistent with the Scottish Government’s objection to the funding model.

Michael Russell: This government has honoured the previous administration’s commitments to the school building programme since May 2007, to ensure that pupils, staff and communities continued to benefit and indeed provided additional resources to meet the financial shortfall for PPP projects inherited. Ministerial visits to any of these schools is entirely consistent with that approach. In addition, we have announced the new £1.25 billion school building programme which will lift 35,000 more pupils out of poor condition schools.

  This government has made no secret of its reasons for objecting to the PPP funding model and have asked the Scottish Futures Trust to develop an alternative.

Scottish Government Funding

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what provision it made in its single outcome agreement with Glasgow City Council to fund the Dance School of Scotland.

Michael Russell: Single outcome agreements reflect the priorities and agreed outcomes for each council and include relevant supporting indicators and targets. They are not funding agreements.

Scottish Government Funding

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it has provided to Glasgow City Council to fund the Dance School of Scotland in each of the last five years.

Michael Russell: The Scottish Government has provided Glasgow City Council with the following funding for the Dance School of Scotland at Knightswood Secondary School in Glasgow:

  

 2005-06
£1,187,500


 2006-07
£1,216,700


 2007-08
£1,249,600


 2008-09
 *


 2009-10
 *



  Note: *Under the concordat agreement with COSLA, funding for the school was rolled up into a local government settlement for Glasgow City Council, which provided record levels of funding for the years 2008-11.

St Andrew’s Day

Margo MacDonald (Lothians) (Ind): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the responses it has received from local authorities to requests by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning to make St Andrew’s Day a school holiday.

Michael Russell: Ten responses to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning’s letters of 23 January and 6 November 2009 to education conveners asking them to consider making St Andrew’s Day a school holiday are available from the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre (Bib. number 49780).